Find those missed opportunities for more business

Since you did your quarterly, Back to School review last week, now is a great time to look for missed opportunities and areas that are ripe with business building potential.

I came across a post at the Sales Lead Association blog that had some statistics that might be really eye-opening for some people.

It is shocking that from 1979 to 2009 several figures remain constant in business annals…

•More than 50% of qualified leads are never worked by sales
•Less than 50% of a sales persons time is spent selling

Numbers like these really bug me, because past leads and clients are such a great source of recurring business. When I hear agents say that business has slowed down, or that the economy has really affected them, I have to suspect that they’ve been depending on new leads for their business. But one way to really light a fire under your business is to take advantage of that Back to School review we did last week, and look hard for areas where follow-up is underdeveloped (or completely missing).

For example, do you have a way to capture leads on your website/blog? If so, great. But how are you tracking and following up on those leads? Do you know where those people are in the sales process? Some leads take longer to develop than others, so if you’re in the practice of only keeping up with the leads that are close in the sales process to buying, you’re setting yourself up for that constant “feast or famine” in your business. If you are always working on and keeping in touch with leads that are at all points, you’re developing a consistent, dependable business. Even in a rough economy.

Worse, do you fall into the group in the second bullet point – finding yourself super busy but in reality spending less than 50% of your time selling? Hire an assistant, now! Whether it’s an onsite admin assistant, or a virtual assistant, put the steps in place to increase your time spent selling. That’s the only way you’ll grow your business. If you’re spending more than 50% of your time on administrative tasks, you’re taking time away from business building activities. Plus, that admin could probably do those tasks much faster than you could. So get help, and get back out there selling!

So take a good hard look at your current follow-up practices. Do you have systems in place to make sure you’re capturing the information you need, and are following up regularly? Is the majority of your time spent selling – showing homes, marketing current for-sale properties, contacting past leads, generating new ones?